Rubicon Conquered in 11.5 hours using Calmini parts.

We started the trail on Friday 09/12/03 and traveled for 7 hours to get to Buck Island Lake were the group camped.

Saturday 09/13/03 I let Xtoolbox drive the 2.5 hours to Rubicon Springs(including the Big Sluice) were the group of 3 Nissan's and 6 Suzuki's set up camp at 15 past noon.

Sunday 09/14/03 we drove the 2 hours(up Cadillac Hill) to the Staging area for a total trip mileage of 15.1 miles.

Calmini Parts Used
Winch Bumper with Tranformer(first production bumper made).
Front Bumper Skid Plate(first production plate made).
Mid Skid Plate(Prototype).
Rear Skid Plate(Prototype).
Sliders.
Steering System.
Torsion Bars.
LSD(front).
3.92:1 Transfer Case Gears.
Gas Tank Skid.
Rear Diff Truss and Skid

Other Parts
Rancho Add-A-Leaf.
Bilstien Shocks(Front & Rear)
ARB Rear Air-lockers.
Warn Premiun Hubs with fuses.
33x10.5x15 BFG AT's(borrowed from Xtoolbox).
SLR rear shackle(borrowed from Xtoolbox).

Removed before trip
Front mud flaps(to clear 33's).
Rear mud flaps.

Left on
Rear corners.
Nissan receiver hitch.

Picture and Video
Pictures will be posted by Monday(with Xtoolbox and myself shooting over 400 pictures it take time to weed thru.)

The first Quicktime movie will be posted by Monday(with Twitch, Xtoolbox and myself shooting over 4 hours of video. It takes time for Twitch and myself(in two formats at two addresses)) to weed thru. Twitch and myself will be working on a DVD of the trip also.

More details
More details to follow... been busy with work(leave for work in a hour)...etc.
Going to pull a all nighter after I work the Emmy's to get it done by Monday.
In the mean time Xtoolbox's thread can be found here in the picture section.

Edited for typos and stuff(parts) I forgot to mention.

That's a lot of Calmini stuff. ...Did Steve say how long more before the production types will be in the market?

Anything about leaf u-bolts skid (whatever the correct name might be... )?

I started pestering him a year ago a GOX. If you need skids now, order the skid row plates. Also I would look at a ubolt flip instead of skid plates. It'll give you more clearance. I think XTerror did that.

U-bolt plate skids available here: http://www.darlington-offroad.com/item.jhtml?PRID=1232546

Brent

Thanks for the link, Brent... But, I'm not really interested in Darlington ones. I considered them, but I've decided not to since Huey who has a set told me that the quality sucks and really pain to install them.

Huhh? My Darlingtons are great and were very easy to install! Super heavy duty. Better then the POS Nissuck ones!

I think you got one of the 1st sets, but the batch that I got and CharlieX got sucked. The u-bolts didn't line up (to the holes in the skid), the shock bolts had to be forced in because the thread pitch was incorrect, and my skids are bent becuase I couldn't torque the u-bolts to factory specs (the metal is soft). Though they are bent, they have held up for a year now, but I'm just not impressed with them and will replace them later on.

BTW, I wrote Darlington an email about my issues so that they could possibly improve their design, but got no answer from them. :rolleyes:

The prototypes had to be tested.
Someone had to test them.
The Rubicon was a logical place.
Going to do more testing on local runs.

With SEMA coming up in November and more testing... a realistic target date would be Late November.

I have been running the first production bumper and skid plate thru a workout. Any improvements will be made on future production runs.

An as I tell my 7 year old daughter,"Patience is a virtue".

Snoopy . . .

Click this -->

Okay Snoopy... since you asked nicely... I bought a Gigabyte of photo space and tested it in Officer Todrick\'s jurisdiction. It tested okay. So below are 7 pictures.

Actually pics of the new skids would be nice...

Okay... it is dark now. I will take some pictures tomorrow and post those pictures also. :rolleyes:

LAX Thanks! Oh how I wish I was part of that trip. Of course, I'd be another $3,000 in credit card debt getting Snoopy ready for such a trip.

Congrats on your accomplishment!

Pics are gone

www.sccxterra.com is Unavailable...

Where are the pics?

...Mom?!...

Yes dear?

Mom can´t help, but aunt is still working on it...



:p

Well, aunt just sent an email:

Nissan take\'s on the Rubicon and www.blankwhitepage.com

Tho'se are s'ome s'weet photo's!

Geez boys, the whole province of Newfoundland pretty much resembles that landscape....